


We'll Make It Happen

by honorarystar



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Fluff, I DON'T THINK AARON WAS IN THIS AT ALL IM SORRY, M/M, Social Media, supportive friends, this is pure and soft ur welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-09-01 04:44:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8608504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honorarystar/pseuds/honorarystar
Summary: “Why would I want to share pictures of my personal life with strangers though?” Neil slumped down in his seat on the lounge couch. He wished that he had waited for Andrew instead of getting to practice early. This could have been avoided.“It’s Instagram. Who cares?” Allison was looking at Neil like he was the insane one for not grasping this concept.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this is for my pals who check the tfc tag every dang day
> 
> yeah the title is from history maker aka yoi don't @ me

“You do realize I’ve spent the majority of my life trying to stay unnoticed and out of the public eye, right?” Neil looked from Allison’s overeager face to his new smartphone screen and back again.

“Neil, you’ve been glaringly in the public eye since day one of being a fox. You’re completely free and safe to put that obnoxious attitude of yours on the internet now.” Allison was practically bouncing she seemed so excited to seduce Neil into the social media world.

“Why would I want to share pictures of my personal life with strangers though?” Neil slumped down in his seat on the lounge couch. He wished that he had waited for Andrew instead of getting to practice early. This could have been avoided.

“It’s Instagram. Who cares?” Allison was looking at Neil like he was the insane one for not grasping this concept.

“But why—”

“Neil, buddy, you’re not in hiding anymore. Everybody knows you whether you like it or not,” Matt chimed in. He gave Neil and apologetic smile for taking Allison’s side.

Kevin spoke up from where he was reading a text book on the other couch, “I originally said it would be easier to make you a champion if you remained heterosexual. Since you’ve decided to attach yourself to Andrew I suppose social media could work in your favor.”

Neil barely refrained from turning his favorite hand gesture in Kevin’s direction.

“Kevin even uses Instagram,” Allison pointed out.

“I don’t know if you could count him as an Instagram user,” Matt laughed, “He literally has two pictures up: One of an exy racquet and one of Jeremy Knox.”

Allison and Matt were looking at him expectantly. Neil sighed. “Show me how to use it.”

By the time practice had started, Neil was following all of the Foxes (minus Andrew. He did not have an Instagram and he rolled his eyes when he arrived and discovered that Neil had given in to his teammates' persuasions) and most of the Trojans and Vixens. He had quickly gained over 1,000 followers, most of whom Allison told him were exy fans or probably Neil’s classmates. Neil did not follow them back.

His profile picture was his jersey, just the number 10 and his last name. Allison and Nicky wanted his first post to be a picture of himself, but he refused. After all of these years, willingly taking a picture of himself and sharing it in a public domain would take some working up to.

Instead, since Andrew was sitting on the arm of the couch next to Neil, he took a picture of Andrew’s shoe, and immediately pressed the ‘share’ button.

Allison, Nicky, Matt, and Dan all looked down at their phones (they had his notifications turned on) and then back up at Neil. Neil looked back at all of them, not entirely understanding why they weren’t satisfied with his social media usage.

“You,” Nicky started. “You didn’t even write a caption.”

Dan stared at Neil and she looked like she was trying not to laugh, “It’s blurry.”

Neil ignored them because his phone wouldn’t stop beeping. They were all people liking and commenting on that picture. He held up his phone for one of them to take. “I don’t want all of these notifications, they’re annoying.”

Andrew took his phone out of his hand, tapped the screen a few times, and tossed the phone back into Neil’s lap. This time the screen stayed dark.

“This is going to take some work,” Neil heard Dan whisper to Nicky on their way out to the court.

Over the next few weeks Neil got more used to how the app worked. He also managed to post a total of (3) new pictures. He didn’t use a caption for any of them.

One picture was of Kevin pointing his racquet at Nicky’s chest during practice. He had been wearing his helmet so it was hard to tell in the picture but Kevin had been yelling at them while Neil stood next to Andrew in the goal until Kevin calmed down.

Neil only ever looked at the comments from the people he followed and on this one they were:

 **@kevin_day:** delete this

 **@thenickyhemmick** : kevin showing his true colors

A lot of Nicky’s comments were just strings of emojis which Neil elected not to read.

Another picture was of Andrew. This one was not blurry and it was of more than his ankle. They had been smoking on the roof one evening and they hadn’t been saying much. Neil had looked over at Andrew and realized that it was almost dim, but the purple and orange light of the sunset behind Andrew was pleasing to look at. When Andrew was holding his cigarette just against his lips, his shoulder pulling the sleeve of his t-shirt taut, Neil snapped the picture. He almost considered not sharing it at all, keeping this permanent moment to himself, but then he remembered that he would have more of these moments, for a long time.

“Would you mind if I posted a picture of you?” Neil asked.

Andrew looked at him out of the corner of his eye. He moved closer so their thighs were touching and he leaned his head in Neil’s space so he could see the screen, examining it closely.

Andrew leaned away after a minute and said, “I do not care.”

Neil smiled, softly, and pressed the ‘share’ button. “Thank you.”

Andrew had tossed his cigarette onto the ground, leaning into Neil’s space again until he was too close for Neil to keep their eyes locked. This time he didn’t lean away for quite some time.

The third picture he posted was taken on the way to an away game. Neil had taken to sitting in Andrew’s seat in the back of the bus on occasion so he could see all of his teammates. Since Andrew was sitting next to him, he wasn’t in the picture but Neil thought that was okay since the ratio of Andrew to the other Foxes appearing on his account was disproportionate. The picture was just of the back of the Foxes’ heads, spread out around the bus. Neil thought it was nice. He also managed to tag all of the Foxes in it so shortly they were turning around to smile at Neil. Then they turned back around and start typing.

 **@thenickyhemmick:** wow u managed to get **@realallisonreynold** ’s good side

 **@realallisonreynolds: @thenickyhemmick** every side is my good side

 **@m4ttboyd:** damn who’s that girl wit the short weave what’s her @

 **@kevin_day:** delete this

 **@danwildin: @m4ttboyd** holla

Neil remembered when he first got a phone and how surprised he was that the Foxes spent so much time together and would still talk to each other in the brief moments that they weren’t in the same room. Now he was being exposed to yet another form of communication where it didn’t actually seem like they were communicating. Why they commented on the picture when they were sitting right next to each other, Neil didn’t know. He was starting to appreciate it though.

It had been about a week since he last posted a picture and he didn’t really mind that. But he had been going through his friends’ profiles and noticed some things. First of all, there were several pictures of him that were taken before he even had an Instagram account that he was not aware of. They were mostly of him doing mundane things, sitting on the couch, running, one of him across the table from Matt at a restaurant. He showed up a lot on their accounts (they tagged him in pictures now) but they also showed up a lot on each other’s accounts. Allison and Renee seemed to take pictures of each other a lot, as did Matt and Dan. Not only did they take pictures of each other, or of them together, but also of themselves. Allison had more pictures of herself than anyone.

Neil knew Allison and Nicky and even Dan had been wanting him to post a picture of himself for a while now. Apparently so had their followers. Neil flipped the camera on his phone so he could see his own face. His blue eyes had stopped startling him so much after a while, but they would never cease to remind him of his father. His auburn hair reminded him of when his mother would give him haircuts as a child. Neil never really thought of his scars a lot. He didn’t spend that much time looking in a mirror, or at himself in a camera, but he knew they were startling to people when they first really saw them. The public knew about them. After the first few post-game press conferences they knew not to bring up the stories about Neil’s past and what happened in Baltimore. Andrew and Wymack had made sure of that.

Neil took the picture and pressed ‘share’. He put his phone in his pocket and finished his math homework before looking at it again.

 **@m4ttboyd: @neiljos10** I don’t want to be dramatic or anything but this is the cutest picture I have ever seen. I will never see anything more beautiful than this collection of pixels. when I die, plaster this on my grave. don’t write my name or date of birth or death, just slap this image over the slab of stone that marks my eternal place of rest. people will understand, they will. I truly believe this is a message from god Himself, I truly believe this is the first photograph of a real live angel. There is no other explanation. I am so blessed, so blessed.

 **@thenickyhemmick:** HE: DID THAT

 **@danwildin:** I WOULD ROB ALL THE STARS FROM THE SKY IF IT MEANT YOU WOULD ALWAYS BE SURROUNDED BY LOVE AND HAPPINESS AND NEVER ONCE DOUBT THE LIGHT IN YOUR HEART THANK YOU FOR YOUR EXISTENCE

 **@renee.walker:** very cute neil!

 **@realallisonreynolds:** did I save this picture or did this picture save me?

 **@kevin_day:** good job

Neil smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> tag yourself i'm matt
> 
> the foxes are a bunch of memes
> 
> i think this is my first G rated fic. no porn. i didn't even write a swear word. who am i.
> 
> i'm neilminyard on twitter if u wanna


End file.
